Unconvinced

Gephardt might not the most exciting choice, but he gives the Republicans zero ammunition. And that fits in nicely within Kerry’s strategy.

Nice thought, but no. Suppose Kerry needs to explain his wishy-washy position on the war. He’ll want to say that he would have been happier with the Biden-Lugar resolution but, unfortunately, it was scuttled . . . by his vice presidential nominee. Oops! In general Gephardt will give the GOP about seventeen million new votes to scrutinize for further flip-flops and differences with Kerry’s. Also — people hate him. Also — no one likes him. I’m not saying that if Kerry picks Gephardt that then all of a sudden voting for Bush becomes a good idea, but picking Gephardt is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea and choosing that bad idea will reflect badly on Kerry. There’s no getting around that.